This just in…
Insiders on former Kansas City Star columnist Steve Penn’s defamation lawsuit against the newspaper say Penn and his attorney are poised to breath new life in his battle over his firing for alleged plagiarism charges.
We’ll see.
The case was dismissed recently after a key Penn witness’s mother reportedly fell and the party was unable to be in KC for the trial.
So where do things go from here?
“Well, we’re actively working on it,” says the source indicating the case will be reopened. “You would think if the Star’s case was so strong – so iron clad – why would they be trying to put the kibosh on all of (Steve’s) witnesses.“
By the way, the source claims that the witness who’s mother fell was not former Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock.
The lastest on the Penn Man?
“I wrote a book and I’m marketing that right now,” Penn says. “And I’m getting ready to tackle another one; I’m entertaining a few ideas.”
On the social front, Penn rejoined Woodside this past week.
“He was in an awfully good mood when I saw him there yesterday,” says fellow Woodsider Craig Glazer. “And he’s rejoined the club and he’s excited about his book because he’s doing a signing at the jazz museum December 23rd.”
Penn declined to comment on his case, but Glazer says, “He told me he never copied a story – just small portions of announcements, like where something was going to happen and who was going to be there. I just don’t see where that’s all that bad. He never took the intellectual spirit of someone else’s story.
“Remember, Steve was caught up like you in the early layoffs and cutbacks at the Star. And in Steve’s case, because he’d been there so long and was of color, the Star probably thought it would look bad if they just let him go. And I think Steve feels that way now, too – that they didn’t want to play the race card.
“But the Star was on a mission to get rid of the higher paid reporters and columnists like you, and that’s the way the game is played. Whitlock was replaced by Sam Mellinger and you were replaced basically by that Jenee´ girl who writes about things like what the drinks taste like at some bar. I mean, on one hand people were reading stories you did that raised eyebrows and what she is doing is like reading what some student at the University Daily Kansan would write about.
“And Steve didn’t really do what either you or Jason did, but they felt that at his salary, he was someone they could live without.”
Man, this guy needs to pack it in before Ze Star buries him in doodoo and debt.
Good lawyers do these techniques, squash everything at the discovery stage to stack the deck even more. If your lawyer is not doing this you should worry. Like the old saying goes it is not about the truth but what you can prove in court.
He didn’t get his out of court settlement because ze Star thinks their termination was justifiable; this should give Penn a big pause to rethink this case. But as the other saying goes, you can’t fix lazy and stupid.
Craig Glazer, journalism/law expert now.
Crazy isn’t it? I have experience in most every aspect of adult life, the law being one, with several federal, state and civil trials…criminal, biz…wish I didn’t…and then there is my vast experience in so many areas…film,tv,radio, comedy, women boy the list goes on and on…so…I get to be a sounding board…see…now you get it…but you already knew this huh…? Thought so…happy days.
You ran the FYI for years, the idea that someone would be fired over reprinting/borrowing from a press release on a story about that same event is laughable.
The Calendar section would be twice as long with all the citations.
And isn’t it the same in journalism as the same as academia where you don’t need to cite common knowledge? “Cats are a 4 legged feline” doesn’t need to be cited just as something like “First friday is held the first friday of the month in the Crossroads” doesn’t need to reference the press release.